1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to dispensers for eye medication and, more specifically, to a Combination Eye Cup and Drop Dispenser.
2. Description of Related Art
Administering eye drops to one's own eyes can be a simple, painless process for many people. For others, however, eye sensitivity, hand unsteadiness, or just simple inexperience can cause the user to have great difficulty actually getting the drops into the eye. Even experts at placing eye drops can miss the eye (or dispense a drop while the eye is momentarily closed), which often will result in the drop ending up elsewhere on the user's face or body. A conventional dispenser is depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views of the conventional disposable eyedrop dispenser 10. The device 10 has a unitary bottle (or body) 12 and a nozzle 16 either formed thereon or attached thereto. The base of the nozzle 16 has external threads 18 formed thereon in order to engage internal threads (not shown) formed within the cap 14. This allows the cap 14 to be secured over the nozzle 16 when the dropper 10 is not in use.
The nozzle 16 has a tapered shape terminating in an orifice 20 at its end. To administer drops, the user must hold the uncapped dispenser 10 upside down with the nozzle 16 just separated from and above an eye. Squeezing the bottle 12 will then dispense individual drops (ideally) into the eye.
The problem with this prior design is that there is nothing to assist the user in stabilizing the dispenser 10 so that drops dispensed through the orifice 20 will land in the eye.
Numerous attempts have been made to solve this problem; examples of these devices are: Silver, U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,381 and Sbarra et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,200. The Silver device is an “Eye Drop Dispenser and Cup.” As its name suggests, the Silver device is a eye drop dispenser bottle that has an eye cup sheathing its nozzle. The cup allows the user to steady the tip of the nozzle over one's eye while the drops are dispensed. The Silver cup should minimize the propensity to miss the eye with the drops. The problem with Silver is that the nozzle is inconvenient to open and close. The user must remove the plug (element 22) in order to use the dropper.
Sbarra seeks to solve the cap problem. The Sbarra device is an improvement upon the Silver device in that there is a valve integrated into the dispenser. The Sbarra device requires the user to first twist the eye cup/bottle cap to a predetermined orientation, then upend the bottle over the eye, and then depress a button near the neck of the bottle in order to dispense a certain number of drops from the nozzle.
While the Sbarra device does eliminate the need for removal of the cap to dispense, it adds such complexity that it would tend to be cost-prohibitive to manufacture.
The concept for the present invention builds upon the inventor's six-year-long experiences attempting to properly self-administer as many as ten eye drops daily following cataract surgery. While only approximately five percent or fewer individuals experience post-surgical difficulties, the numbers can expect to increase as the average age of our population grows. The present invention is particularly useful for persons having additional obstacles to drop placement, such as living alone, having poor vision or poor balance, experiencing Parkinson's disease, suffering rotator cuff pain and/or osteoporosis of the elbow, neck, back or shoulder. Furthermore, poor depth perception can actually make the process dangerous for the user.
What is needed is a simplified eye drop dispenser and cup combination that is simple to manufacture and operate, and that does not require a separate cap to secure the contents.